Deformable Open-Frame Cable-Driven Parallel Robots: Modeling, Analysis, and Control

This article proposes a generalized type of cable-driven parallel robot with deformable frames (D-CDPRs). The class of D-CDPRs allows: first, inevitable deformation of traditional rigid frame CDPRs to be considered; and second, new possibilities to develop CDPRs with lightweight frames that would deform. Comparatively, such lightweight CDPRs are easier to set up and largely reduce the cost of material and construction. However, the analysis and control of D-CDPRs are challenging as existing works usually assume the CDPR frame is rigid, such that the cable exit points on the frame are known and fixed. If the modeling errors induced by the deformable frame are not addressed appropriately, the control performance of D-CDPRs will be inaccurate and even unstable. To tackle this problem, novel modeling, analysis, and control approaches are proposed accordingly for D-CDPRs. Using the Euler–Bernoulli beam equations to develop a D-CDPR model, the workspace analysis is proposed and explored. Furthermore, the model-based feedforward length (MBFL) controller is proposed, where it is shown that cable length can be used to execute the tension control for D-CDPRs. Finally, the proposed work is validated in both simulation and hardware experiments.